Wednesday Web Tools: Internet Browsers

There are a lot of useful tools online to run your business more efficiently, engage with your customers, and to stay informed about the marketplace. But first you need to be on the internet. Obviously if you are reading this you've made it that far. However, I'd still like to start by talking about the most basic of subjects, your internet browser.

The internet is the network of computers. Web pages make up the World Wide Web, and those are what you access with a browser. Most PC's come with Internet Explorer from Microsoft built in. If you are on a Mac Safari from Apple will be your default. But you also have a few more options that are also popular.

Mozilla Firefox is an open source browser. What that means is that the browser was created by some smart users to be used as a free way to connect to the web. Firefox has become a popular browser due to it's reputation as being less susceptible to viruses. It also has a wide variety of extensions and add-on's that can be used to customise the browser and to add features for many websites. A few add on extensions I like are ad-block, which removes ads from web pages you might visit. I also like Pocket, which bookmarks web pages to be read later at a more convenient time.

Google has also thrown their hat in the ring with their Chrome browser. I find Chrome to be a very good browser and it, like Firefox, can be customized with a wide variety of extensions and add-ons. My favorite of these in KanbanFlow, which I find to be a quite useful to-do list. The largest criticisms I hear about Chrome is that it is heavily tied into Google, which causes some people concerns regarding privacy. Also, there is the precaution against "putting all the eggs in one basket" since Google is involved in so many different web services.

This has just been a brief overview. Like choosing a car, your best choice is a blend of performance, style, and features. I recommend trying them all to see who is your best fit. You may find, like me, that using different browsers to do different things is your best choice.